Sadly, it didn't work. I'm wondering if I didn't insert the syringe in far enough I layed a towel down under her, and I'd say about 1/2 went on the towel and half went inside her. (The box said do 1/2 for children 2-5) DD is almost 3. So I layed a diaper under her...waiting for it. Well it never came All I got when I checked her an hour later was the same thing: a pullup full of skid marks. She hasn't had a real BM in 6 days now and I'm just so frustrated. My sister had to help me hold her down in order for me to do it because she was kicking, screaming and fighting it.

I've tried diluted prune juice (she hates it and now won't drink it), tons of juice throughout the day laced with Benefiber, just plain water, pedialax dissolving tongue strips, suppositories (3 x on 3 different occassions). I've also cut down on foods that migt bunch her up and we only eat wheat stuff around here, i.e. bread, pasta...etc.

Anyway, this is a control issue for her and she is doing whatever she can to NOT poop. Plus now I think it's built up in there so long she's afraid to go because it will hurt. Also, her appetite has not been too great these past couple days and she's been laying around a lot.
I guess all I can do is take her to the Dr. to do another enema that might be more effective? any other suggestions? Thanks

The enema and suppositories will only get out whatever is in the lower part and will not help with anything higher up. And as you have found out those things are not every effective on children. Have you tried Miralax? It may take a day or two but it works very well and it is safe to use daily if needed.

I know that constipation like this can be a worry, but doing this procedure on a kicking and screaming child----what do you think the difference is between this and severe physical punishment? I am sure the child doesn't know. My husband's mother gave him enemas and he still has very bad memories of it, as well as a permanent injury to his rectum. It is very easy to damage the bowel when the person jumps around a lot. Like the other poster said, it is not very effective, especially in terms of the distress it causes the child. You said yourself it is a control issue - don't buy into a toddler's game, just keep giving her the Miralax, and eventually she will go. Take care, Sera.

I would stay away from the drugs, enemas are chemicals that the body absorbs. Try giving a ton of water, some apple juice and stop playing into her games. Can you talk to her about why she does this? Take another approach? Miralax and enemas are not the long term answer.

hi, read your post. Enemas are the most gentle way to clean the colon, however, after a few days of no bm, the stool hardens. What ever you do at this stage will hurt as the hard stool must come down, unless you soften it. A baby syringe of warm olive oil, held, may help. To do this NEVER force a child, but make it a game or part of a back massage, bath, etc. If you view the procedure negatively, they will.

Best position, is bottom up over your knee hanging straight down, at this age, from your knee. This lets gravity work with you. Put the olive oil in the syringe and work the air out. rub her back, get her relaxed then put in a bulb full and hold her in that position for a few minutes. Olive oil slips out really easy, so she may go immediately so get her diaper up. You want her to hold this a few hours.

After that try a regular enema. With little ones sitting over the edge of the bathtub with them, with your legs bare as well is a good idea. (easier to shower off!) Same thing, hanging down, make it a game, be positive about it. Keep putting bulbs of warm water in her till she is full without discomfort, then swing her, play with her and keep her relaxed holding it via the position for five minutes. With little kids they go, put the potty chair in the tub with her, and put her on it when she is ready. She should go.

Use no chlorinated water as this kills normal flora, and put one tablespoon of NaHCO3 per quart of water. Plain water is an irritant. The key to a good enema is to fill the colon. This varies with every person and is less with kids. giving the enema to a cooperative adult you can tell when the pressure of fullness is there by the pressure in the bulb or a slowing of flow from the bag.

When you start an enema it goes in easy if you don't hit a blockage, and with your girl, blockage is likely. If this happens move the nozzle, back it out move it gently arround, etc until it flows easy.

Rule one with enemas---no pain! Insertions, and fillings are not uncomfortable with a normal bowel. An impacted colon is different, but be careful. Enemas are safer that aspirin, but require common sense. Two things that cause injury are roughness in insertion (puncturing the colon) and electrolyte imbalence, (enema water is absorbed rapidly, and can imbalence the electrolytes in the blood, particularily if you use plain water) This is rarely a risk except little kids and others who cannot communicate how they feel (old people usually) One enema should not do this, but can with MS and some other disorders. With a baby, one enema is usually fine. But wait and get electrolytes in them before repeats.

I wrote an article on this and posted it, also wrote an article about constipation. Something you need to be aware of is that if you let constipation become chronic in a child it causes the colon to enlarge. So if you want her to grow up with a big tummy that doesn't work right, let her stay constipated. I think dealing with it at this age is best done if there is no BM in one or two days, not later. Enemas or laxatives don't hurt if you deal with it before the stool is there long enough to harden, and enemas, warm, gentle ones with a little baking soda are not addictive, just be sure she has a good round of bulk foods or a little psyllium husk to encourage a normal bm the next day. If she keeps needing them, figure out what the problem is. Often in summer it is dehydration. Kids need more water than adults.

hi Brooke85! i just read your post here and wondered how things are going now with your daughter? i very recently (like about a month ago) went through the same thing with my daughter too. i think our daughters have been going through very similar potty issues for awhile now!!!

so to physically prepare my daughter to poop, i got her eating prunes (i told her they were big raisins, and she loves them!), i gave her a ton of apple juice, gave her raisin bran cereal, oatmeal squares cereal, corn..... all the stuff that should get the bowels going....

then i had to mentally prepare her. she just turned 3, by the way. i think she started out not pooping because it was a control thing, but then i think it became a fear thing because she was afraid it would hurt. so because it was a control thing, the first thing i had to do was act like i didn't care if she went or not. like i was already bored with the conversation before we even got started. i talked to her pretty frankly about it. i explained that she kept her poops in for so long, that they are just getting bigger and bigger inside her body. i told her that yes, her poops would hurt a little coming out, but that after she starts letting them come out more, they'll stop hurting, but if she doesn't let them out, she'll get even bigger ouchies and bad tummy aches, and we'd have to go to the hospital and there might be shots and needles..... i wanted not pooping to sound just as unpleasant as i could possibly make it! i told her i would hold her hand if she needed me to, or that i would just sit with her, or that if she wanted to be alone, she could go and do it alone. then i told her i had special medicine to put on her bum to help her poops to not hurt so much when she let them come out. then i took a q-tip and put a bit of vaseline ("special medicine") just inside her bottom and then i told her she could go off and poop on the potty or in her pullup.

i would love to tell you this was a magical procedure that worked in one go, but it took a few times of doing this (over a period of two or three days) before she finally let herself poop big. and it did hurt, but she knew it would, so she was prepared a bit better for it, and after she was done, i put more "special medicine" on her bottom. i also told her it didn't matter if she pooped in her pullups or on the potty, she could choose and i didn't care either way.

we probably went through this several times over a period of two or three months before she finally figured it out.... a couple of times, she went more than two weeks without pooping, so don't panic just yet!!! and really, she only figured it out within the last month that she can poop on the potty and it was better than holding it in! now she poops every day on the potty and she's doing great with it!

anyway, sorry this is long and rambling, but i just wanted to let you know what worked for us! hopefully things are better now with your daughter and you don't need any of this anyway!

hi brooke85, sorry to hear you are having so much trouble wih your daughter but i definitely think that an enema is the only way to go! first of all brooke, put some soapy water in the bag with about 2 tablespoons of olive oil. ivory soap will be perfect. there is no way she will be able to hold this! just hold her down and squeeze the buttcheeks together for about 10 minutes after you have administered it and very soon she will have to go! she will have no choice! let me know how you made out.

Wow, I don't think I'll ever be able to administer an enema to my son, nor would I want to. It sounds really traumatizing and scary. I hope there is a more natural way of helping move the bowels. Marisuela - I think your advice was wonderful. I'll keep it in mind when my son starts potty training, if we hit this speed bump.

My son now 11 started doing that 'holding' in kindergarten because his teacher wouldn't allow them to go when they needed to, only during scheduled breaks at 5 that is just ridiculous but nothing I said or did changed it. So he held it and held it and finally became bloated and said his tummy hurt so I asked how long had it been since he pooped and he told me he didn't poop anymore (omg) I took him to the pedi who said to do the enema thing.. didnt work.. then miralax.. didnt work. My son was afraid to go also because he said when he felt like he needed to go it hurt really bad so he held it in. He would leak some brown fluid which the pedi said was what was able to come down around the hardened stool in the lower intestine and bowel. It went on so long that his colon became stretched (megacolon) and he could no longer tell when or if he had went or needed to go. He was always afraid to go and I'd catch him in his room hiding and holding it with his face turning red. He had to go into the hospital several times to be cleaned out because what they had me doing at home wasnt working. To this day, 6 yrs later, his colon is still enlarged and he leaks and doesnt even realize it. Not a good time for a kid in 5th grade. The thing we have to do now on the weekend.. every saturday.. is give him a bottle of magnesium citrate. Yes, the entire bottle and it tastes like super salty kool-aid so he hates it but he knows it's better than the alternative so he does it. I'm not sure if this will be a lifelong thing but I know it isnt fun so find a good doctor and get your daughter help now! Dont mess around with fruit juice and enemas.. this will get worse!

hi there, i just want to share that i have a 12 yo daughter who has also been dealing with the similar situation since she was 7. she's under the care of a GI specialist now and let me tell you, i know about the fustration one goes thhrough when trying to help our child have a bm...my daughter started the same way as nuttygirl's son...she would always hold it and hold it and eventually have her lil accidents...at first i didnt know how to deal with the situation so i would get upset with her. i kept thinking she was just to lazy to go use the restroomm you know like when they're too busy playing with friends and dont want to go...so it just kept building up by the day and like every 3 to 4 days she would finally go and let me tell you her stool would be very very big and looong i mean i was shocked the first time i saw one! i couldnt believe it came out of her lil body...so every day she would come home from school with her undies soiled and it got to a point where i would just get so mad that i would make her wash her undies ...when i finally took her to the dr. they told me that her brain just got use to the smell and so that explained why it didnt matter to her if she washed her dirty undies or not...i ended throwing them away n kept buying her new ones....dr. put her on everything like stool softners to that milk of magnesium but never recomended giving an enema...so the yrs gone by i changed her dr. thinking maybe another dr. will treat her another way...her new dr. referred her to a GI specialist and till this day she is being seen by this GI dr. but i must say i think it's more of a phychological thing...but just like nutty girls son, my daughter to would hide in her room aand hold her stools and i always catch her doing that, so now by order of the dr. i send her everyday before she goes to school and after school she needs to sit in the toilet and try to go before she heads to school...she's in the 6th grade now so it's not easy...dr. has her on miralax she takes it twice a day and i clean her out with that magnesium citrate every now and then. she needs to eat alot of fruit perferably prunes, apricots, peaches, plums everything that has that big seed in the middle he says...drink lots of water and exercize daily...that has seem to help a whole lot...she's improved soo much but i gotta tell you it still happens...she can go a whole month with out "an accident"(that's what we always call it) and then boom it happens again...so i'm just so used to it now...but dr. says shaming her does it help, yelling at her doesnt help, getting mad at her doesnt help...i mean sheesh! a few yrs ago we started a reward plan where i would reward her for "Not" having an accident for a week straight and that seemed to help....haha only for a while! like i said she's 12 now so last month when i took her to the dr. he said basically there's not much more he can do for her she's a pre-teen and she needs to grow out of it on her own...he said eventually when she starts gettn into boys she'll feel embarrased with the whole situation and grow of it...not sure if this is true but that's what he said....

anyway sorry for making this so long..i just wanted to share this with you guys esp. with nutty girl since we seem to be dealing with kids of the same age...

hi, i think a good old fashioned soapsuds enema would be the way to go! and dont take no for an answer! if necessary get a couple of people in to help hold her down and just do it! i think you probably will get much better results then with anything else. let me know how it goes. i have given many so i am very familiar.

OMG! I never knew it cold get so advanced!!! When my daughter was potty training in daycare, someone said her butt stunk when she had a bm and that was the last time she went at daycare.... I have resorted to a suppostory every other day if she don't go. The ped said miralax, but I didn't want anything "internal". I have her sit and read her stories with the supp. and for us this works. Now I think it is a matter of taking the time to go. She is 4.

Well I know it's been awhile, but I thought I'd bump this thread with an update. DD is still doing this, but off and on. We have been to the Dr.'s since my first post. He put her on Miralax 3x daily until she was cleaned out, then after that once daily or maybe more as needed. She poops only when I give her the Miralax. All of the fruits and juice I give her don't seem to make a difference other than making the poop soft. She still just won't let it out Last week the daycare called me to pick her up because they said she had "diarrhea." It was actually runny Miralax poop So now I can;t do Miralax during those 3 days she's in daycare or they'll send her home, but now that I've quit doing Miralax those days she's holding again. I sure hope it ends soon. I'm not a big fan of the Miralax, but I feel like I've exhausted my more "natural" efforts and if I don't do it then she'll never poop and get sick. Thanks for all you advice ladies, I am still working on my stubborn girl!